My son B & lovely K are here!  A miracle of logistics!  Really nice to have them join us.

Took us a day or so to ‘adjust’, but we are now ‘in the flow’, we know where things are and find ourselves lost only half the time now.  We are basically good.

Antigua is beautiful.  No question.  But, it has gone over to the tourist side, Luke. It has sold out, I am afraid. This is a place to be ‘seen’ and for old travelers to ‘look cool’.  The young backpacking crowd don’t seem to linger.  Too expensive for them.  Not authentic enough.

I find myself somewhere in between the old ‘wanna-be-seens’ and the adventurers.  I love the house.  I love Anna, our two-day a week housekeeper and I really enjoy having the Land Rover at our disposal but this is NOT an adventure.  This is NOT a learning, world-opening experience.  It is just a nice place to kill two winter months.  And that is just fine by me but I confess to feeling as if I, too, have sold out a bit.  I really do appreciate having a hot shower and ice cubes. And I never liked hiking miles in the hot sun with a heavy pack.  Seemed pointless then.  Seems even more so now.   I guess we have gotten spoiled.

Still, there is a restless bone or two still rattling around.  I kinda wanna ‘get off the beaten track and go exploring.  We’ll see.

It’s pretty safe here, as well.  Nothing, so far, has even suggests ‘danger’.  The people are great, very friendly.  Even tho the prices of things might suggest a bit of cynicism a la tourism the people are still genuine and gracious.  The mood is good. We are relaxed.  Having said that, we are encountering ‘ characters’ as one always does while traveling.

John and Robin introduced themselves to us early on the morning we had arrived.  We were in a little cafe  waiting for the house to get cleaned up and we were practically comatose after 30 hours without sleep.

“Hola, gringos! You two should join us with your coffees!” offered John. He and Robin loomed over our table and they beamed a serendipitous  friendship at us, smiling just a few watts shy of what a used car salesman or a realtor might normally generate if you just walked into their office.   I would have hit him if I wasn’t too tired to get up.

“Too kind.  Thanks.   But we’re good.  Anyway, I might fall asleep on your bagel.  We’re not good company.”

” Oh, right!  Came in on the red eye special eh?  Yeah, no sleep.  Been there.  But we are here now and lovin’ it!  (big grin) I just love to come here for an early coffee before watching the church open across the square.  Love watching the people come in to worship.  It’s great!”

“Doesn’t sleeping hold more appeal?  I mean it is 6:30 in the morning and you want to watch people go to church?  Do you go, too?”

“Nah.  Not catholic but the church is really beautiful.  I always enjoy it.” 

So, there you have it.  Some people watch birds.  Some sight-see.  Still others have been known to train-spot and I know a few guys who like to plane-spot.  These guys got up early to Catholic spot.  No wonder they came to Central America!

John is 65-ish.  Charming.  Big smile.  Extra white.  Canadian.  Told us about Antigua.  Golf.  Good restaurants.  Robin was nice.  Easy going.  She was American.  They seemed to be friends.  And they seemed as ‘familiar’ with the city as if they had both been coming here for years – not necessarily with each other but plenty of times nevertheless.  She even has her own place here.  Sorta like a vacation haunt.

As I considered the eccentricity of this, I fell into a coma and fell forward into the remains of my bagel.  Just before I lost consciousness, I thanked them for the travel tips, wished them a pope-spotting sometime in the future and agreed to meet up at a fancy restaurant next week.

They were gone when I woke up.  I am going to user that ploy again in future.